


Lady Lilac - Butterfly's Tale

by MyNameIsMarkus



Series: Tales from the No-Zone [3]
Category: Freedom Planet - Fandom, Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Meeting, No-Zone, freedom planet, lady lilac, league - Freeform, league of lilacs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 03:47:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14096532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyNameIsMarkus/pseuds/MyNameIsMarkus
Summary: Across the multiverse are all sorts of Lilacs. Some good, some evil. Some fat, some thin. Some really smart and some really stupid. But the main thing holding them together, relating them all, is a good sense of heroism and a strong will...right?Lady Lilac, queen of Shang Tu and No-Zone Collaborator, is called into the No-Zone by a sorta-close friend to figure out and reason with the League of Extraordinary Lilacs - a set of amoral, violent and ax-crazy Lilacs who normally roam the multiverse. Perhaps another Lilac or two may be enough to knock some sense into them.





	1. The League of Lilacs

**Author's Note:**

> All things said, another classic of mine. I made this for someone else as a sort of request, but they are trying to...move away from the Freedom Planet, so I decided to give it a second lease of life and put it on this site. Enjoy.
> 
> DeviantART Link: https://masterperrymartin.deviantart.com/art/Lady-Lilac-Butterfly-s-Tale-Part-1-638369122

**SHANG TU**   
**Royal Palace, Main Throne Room**   
**Neera-Li, Lady Sash Lilac, Unknown Visitor**

There was polite rapping on the door to the Royal Chambers, followed by a soft creak as they opened. The noise of clomping boots spilled into the azure chambers as the panda began her graceful walk down the halls towards the throne. Her purple clothes rippled and blended with the extreme cobalt themes within the room, the massive window overlooking the skyscrapers beyond the palace and casting soft light onto the long walk to the podium. She stopped before the throne, its golden arches laid with gems and jewels of all kinds, before saluting and dropping to one knee.

"My Master..." she began, her voice low and sophisticated, aimed at the person within the throne, "The visitor from another world is ready to see you now. Shall I let him in?"

The lavender dragon sitting on the throne looked up from whatever part of the floor she was staring at, a look of amusement spreading across her face, "Yes. Send him though."

"Yes, my master," the panda said, before she turned to walk out of the room, making it to the door in little time and gently closing the massive open door behind her. Lady Lilac sighed with happiness, getting out of her throne and walking towards the window. She looked at her reflection, cast as if she was a ghost, shrouded in the light reflecting off of the skyscrapers in front of her. For a lavender dragon, she was quite the unusual specimen, a golden crown draped over her head with a ruby-red gem set in the front of it. Awaiting her guest, she brushed down the drapes of her cobalt blue dress, dusting off dark blue sleeves and midsection ribbon with her bare and scaly hands. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled lovingly; she looked absolutely perfect. Well, almost. She tussled with her hair, moving it away from her face and subconsciously touching the two areas where her tendrils should have been. Even now, with her steely resolve and stoic mannerisms, her missing tendrils were enough to bring a tear to her eye - just the one, however - and a small frown to her face. Of all the things they couldn't do...

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doors creaking open again, this time fair more gallantly, coupled with the clomping of boots as Lady Lilac's guest began to walk briskly down the hall. He was a hedgehog, his build and face very different to the type of walking talking animals that seemed to roam Planet Avalice, his fur a cobalt blue and his eyes a deep green. He was lanky, with long arms and legs but a small body, clad in a rather unusual set of clothes; a red jumpsuit that was quite clingy, a golden chestplate that covered his stomach and shoulders in chunky and engraved armour. He wore dark blue gloves with similarly-bulky cuffs and large green boots that reached up to his thighs and were held in place with more golden braces around the ankles. He didn't wear his face-concealing helmet - he rarely did around Lilac, a sign he had gotten to know her - leaving his pale skin, spiky quills and stoic face on display. He reached the end of the red carpet that snaked across the marble floor, stopping before the throne and turning to face the dragon queen. The panda was once more in the room, having silently slid across the room with the hedgehog, and saluted once more.

"Your guest, my master," the panda barked, standing upright and as straight as a pin.

"Thank you, Neera. You can leave us, now. Go have a coffee or something. An iced one, maybe?"

Neera-Li sneered at the odd pun but nevertheless took it in stride, quickly turning and walking towards the doors once again. As she marched, she could hear the queen and her subject beginning to converse; her voice was dainty and polite, an air of sophistication within it, while his voice was gruffer and carrying the tone of a soldier.

"Miss Lilac of Universe FP-003. It is nice to meet you again."

"That is Lady Lilac of Universe FP-003, I will remind you..." Lady Lilac spoke, waiting until Neera had left the room with the odd thunk of the door being her signal. Her voice changed almost instantly, becoming much more informal and with the new air of an adventurer in her wiser years. She reached out and shook the hedgehog's hand, "Zonic the Zone Cop, right outta the No-Zone. I honestly thought you'd never get here. I tell you, I was beginning to get bored!"

"I can't imagine the sort of life spent ruling an entire continent can be described as 'boring'," Zonic said in his almost emotionless drawl.

"...Well, no," Lady Lilac shrugged, "Stressful is perhaps more apt. But you know what I mean, right?"

"...No."

"Oh," Lady Lilac's two lavender horns dipped a bit, like if she had ears that could droop. They straightened up as she resumed her tract, "So, you decided to take my invitations? You would like my...assistance?"

"Yes," Zonic said, "Your previous efforts have been almost invaluable to us. You've helped us to capture criminals with far less collateral damage. A stable, powerful, flexible individual with a knowledge of the multiverse that...doesn't cause that individual to break out screaming. Agent Amelia's been ranting about you for a while now. Said you would be quite helpful."

"Well..." Lady Lilac looked a bit coy, "It WAS one of your boys who helped me get over those events at the Thermal Base. Helped me get where I am today. I've gotta repay the favour in SOME manner."

"Well, we don't know yet," Zonic stated, "All we know is that whoever helped you was a Zonewalker. Not exactly like us. Anyway, we have looked over your suggestions, invitations and ideas and we are happy to say we will be considering it in the future."

"Really?" Lady Lilac asked, a larger smile on her face, "Thank you, Zonic. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome," Zonic said, shaking Lady Lilac's hand once more, "And I believe we can start with your assistance as early as today. We have something that requires you, a task to prove how helpful you can be in a...non-violent fashion. Agent Amelia has set up a few meetings for various types of you across the multiverse. The normal ones, the alternate-gender ones, the homosexual ones and so on. And there's one we could use your help with. The Fallen Lilac Group."

"The Fallen Lilacs?" Lady Lilac asked, scratching her head in confusion, "Who would they be?"

"I'm afraid I cannot give such information away outside of the No-Zone," Zonic sighed, opening a panel on one of his bulky cuffs and pressing a few buttons underneath it, "We will have to travel there to divulge it. I trust you do not mind being transported as well?"

"Not really," Lady Lilac mused, "I have General Gong look after my throne while I'm away on my...adventures. All I need to do is change into more fitting clothes. Give me...five or so minutes and I should be ready."

"Ready?" Zonic asked, "So you accept?"

Lady Lilac flashed a coy grin as she walked into the sleeping quarters behind the throne area, slowly unzipping her dress from the back on the way, "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

**NO-ZONE**  
 **No Zone Prison, Rehabilitation Centre, Reception**  
 **Five Minutes After** Previous **Scene**  
 **Draigfech, Amelia Rosalina**

There was a powerful flash of light as the portal phased into existence, a large blue swirl that howled and whined as it drew in air and pulled it into its whirling form. There was another flash and an otherworldly hum as someone stepped out of the portal and into the reception. It was Lady Lilac once more, now in her self-assumed "battle dress"; gone was the form-inhibiting blue dress and golden crown, now she wore less modest but certainly more flexible clothes. She wore a light blue tank top that showed off her stomach and a scar that ran across it, a sports bra underneath, a skirt with white fur trim and the Shang Mu symbol on its front and her old boots with their golden soles. Her crown was gone, in its place were two light blue orbs on either side of her head, with a purple whip and a blue dagger in holsters around her waist.

This most unusual dragon stepped further out of the portal, landing with a graceful tap onto the pale green floors of the reception. Zonic followed suit, his heavy boots once again clomping on the floor and disturbing the others waiting in the room. It looked like any other sort of waiting room in any other hospital, being a pale green on the floors and a pale beige on the walls, with blue padded seats and a reception desk nearby with a small rabbit at the desk. In, on and around the chairs were all sorts of duplicates; hedgehogs, foxes, echidnas, bats, snakes and more, all in all sorts of shapes and sizes and colours, all waiting patiently for reasons unknown. Most of those were looking at Lady Lilac and Zonic as the portal vanished into the ether, leaving the two alone.

"WELL..." Lady Lilac almost nonchalantly, brushing off her sort-of clothes, "That was a rush!"

"I know. Multiversial Portal Travel can be a bit of an unsavoury kick first few times 'round," Zonic said, still stone-faced, "You get used to it after a while. Said to be less dangerous than using particle-based teleportation, but...well, not as inconspicuous."

War Lilac said nothing, simply walking a few paces around the reception, strolling up to a water dispenser in the corner and pouring herself a small plastic cup's worth. She walked back, sipping on the water, and eventually spoke, "So, this is the No-Zone, huh? People told me it was more...sideways."

"The No-Zone is, for all intents and purposes, an anomaly," Zonic stated, "We did indeed used to stand at alternate angles, but the whole...shifted following the revolt of a few rogue Elder Masters. They sapped a lot of the energy outta this place. Everything's different now. Darker."

"As expected..." Lady Lilac flashed another smile, "So, what's the plan?"

"Amelia said she'd pick you up directly. Said she'd even bring her understudy with her."

"Understudy?" Lady Lilac asked, "How so?"

"Behind you, kiddo," came another voice, one almost identical towards Lady Lilac's own. She gasped and swung herself around to see behind her. From the doorway in the far corner of the room came a figure, one around Lady Lilac's height and wearing a large black cloak with a hood covering almost all of her face. She had black horns, pale lavender skin and two odd mechanical tendrils spilling out of the back of her head, so it was clear she was another Lilac of some kind. She wore mostly black clothing - a black t-shirt with a corset and black trousers - alongside leather boots and a pair of heavy-cuff leather gloves. Behind her was a female hedgehog, clearly older and more weary, with a pair of sunken eyes and a small wrinkled frown to call her own. She had blond fur, strawberry blond in fact, with lightning blue eyes and her quills up in a ponytail. She wore a white shirt, black dress trousers and a large overcoat with patches and pockets that had obviously been stitched on after the fact, with the odd black gloves and boots to match. The alternate Lilac stopped just before the two, standing stock still like a soldier, while the hedgehog approached further and reached her hand out.

"...And you are?"

"The slightly-insane woman who brought you here," the hedgehog said, taking Lady Lilac's hand and shaking it, "Amelia Rosalina. Chronomancer, Agent of the No-Zone Police and burgeoning Director of the No-Zone Prison Rehabilitation Centre."

"Geez, you think highly of yourself," Lady Lilac snarked, "Who's your friend? The, uh...the other me?"

"Yeah, another you," Zonic stated as he always did, "A Fallen Lilac who turned herself around with Amelia's help. Doesn't think she's deserving of the Lilac identity so she goes around calling herself DraigFech."

"Welsh for 'Dragon Girl', before you ask," the cloaked Lilac spoke, "A language not many universes really have, so it keeps me mostly anonymous. And keeps me from using...well, Lilac. Zonic's right, I don't deserve that sort of identity."

"Why?" Lady Lilac asked, "What did you do?"

DraigFech remained quiet for a bit, "...You'll see."

"Indeed you shall," Amelia smiled, turning around and walking down towards the exit she had just come from, "Follow us."

Lady Lilac looked at her cloaked duplicated for a short while, shrugged and began walking down the hallway with DraigFech and Zonic in rapid tow. The corridors of this No-Zone, the supposed gateway to every other world, looked like any other hospital corridor, even back where Lady Lilac herself hailed; pale white walls, pale green floors and doors and corridors leading just about anywhere and everywhere. Bright lights kept the hallways warmly lit and a number of other creatures were walking back and forth with more No-Zone members to guide them. There were many Lilacs wandering the halls, there was a Lilac wearing Carol's clothes, a male Lilac, a Lilac in a stunning red dress and with vampire fangs, even a Lilac who could only be described as a walking pile of muscle and abs. Lady Lilac couldn't quite get over that last one. Trying to shake the image from her head, she walked a bit faster to catch up with Amelia.

"This is, uh..." Lady Lilac began, "A bit strange. I heard the No-Zone was this weird and wonderful place where everyone stood sideways and they talked funny and they saved people!"

"Well we're not in THAT bit," Amelia said, "We're in the No-Zone Prison, yes, but still in a sub-section. The actual Prison contains the inmates. The repeat troublemakers, you could say, those who never stop causing trouble both in and out of their universe. When I joined the No-Zone Police and rose through their ranks, I decided to, uh, build a wing for rehabilitation, to bring hope to the no-hopers. It did used to be all...strange, but the Elder Master Wars put a stop to that."

"Basically a number of the creators of this 'verse..." DraigFech sounded as if the sentence tasted vile in her mouth, "They tried to revolt against the higher ones, tried to gain even more power. They were vanquished and as further punishment...well, as a deterrent to anyone else who thought revolting was worth a shot, they wiped all of their creations from the quote-unquote 'main universes'. We survived because the No-Zone is situated in the Void - the stuff inbetween."

"We lost a lot of energy when the focus shifted away from us," Zonic said, his heavy boots still audible as the group exited the hallway and entered a large and busy courtyard, "Things stopped working, a number of our patients went insane, a number more of our inmates vanished into the ether overnight. We sorta became desperate for new staff and the moment we saw someone with powerful time-changing powers, we knew that would help us. Next thing we know, our version of Amy ends up cooked to a crisp in a freak fire-related accident, Amelia takes over, a whole new batch of universes are discovered and we're back in business."

"...Thanks for the history lesson," Lady Lilac snarked, "So, what exactly am I doing here?"

"Well, part of my plan is not simply to keep these people locked up," Amelia sighed wearily, "The Elder Masters care just enough to prevent as many time paradoxes as they can, so we have to let all these people go after a while. So the point of my exercise is to rehabilitate them and turn them, for lack of a better word, good. But I haven't been getting any progress with just me, so we need another Lilac to talk to the crazier ones. Consider yourself a...motivational speaker, if you'd like."

"That's about right," DraigFech said, "I'd do it, but I tend to get a bit violent when I'm unnerved. Which is, what, all the time? ...We're here."

The group stopped, having crossed the courtyard and entered another hallway. They were now in front of a door, with another a few steps away from it and "FP-XXX MEETING ROOM 021 - FALLEN LILACS" stamped on both. Inside were vague silhouettes of even more Lilacs sitting around in a circle, while the shadow in the other door revealed some stealthy surveillance equipment, and presumably a one-way window. Amelia silently nodded both Lilacs on and vanished along Zonic into the other room. DraigFech reached into one of the pockets stitched to the inside of her cloak and pulled out a large bunch of keys, flipping them over one by one until a blue one was found. She used it to unlock the door with a vaguely satisfying clunk. It twisted and the door opened, thrusting both Lilacs into the room and putting them faces to faces with the other dragon girls in the room.

There were about five in total, all the same pale dragon girl but in different, very noticeable ways. The first Lilac in the circle was the only one Lady Lilac recognised - and she hated that. It was War Lilac, her dark purple scales and frizzy hair almost complementing her black eyes and pale, blood-stained and scarred skin and cracked black devil horns. Her normally-rather-visible patched and faded blue clothes were covered, wrapped in a straightjacket that bound War Lilac's arms around her torso, with her normally clipped on synthetic tendril spread across her lap. The other Lilacs weren't any better. The next one over had a muted colour scheme, drooping horns and was positively soaked from head to boot while carrying a miserable look on her crying face. Next to her was a Lilac in what appeared to be a close (if rather revealing) approximation of Brevon's orange armour, lacking a cape but ending in an arm cannon around her left hand. Lilac #4 was a most unusual one, singed scales and a smell of burnt flesh permeating her being, while she wore a cyan blue puffy jacket and white undershirt with matching blue shorts and mysterious holes in her hands. The final Lilac, for lack of a better description, looked like a Cold War era soldier, what with the grey clothing and an eyepatch and bandoleers holding shotgun shells pretty much everywhere.

Lady Lilac had a little time to take in their details as DraigFech closed and locked the door behind the two. Each Lilac turned to look at the two in turn; first War Lilac's growling sneer, then the waterlogged Lilac's despairing frown, then the armoured Lilac's giddy glee. The singed Lilac did not do the same, having fallen asleep long before the meeting, while the soldier Lilac was fiddling with a (hopefully deactivated) grenade. It was War Lilac's stare that caused Lady Lilac the most unease, and she turned to DraigFech in the awkward quiet as the sleeping Lilac was slapped awake.

"Uh, Draig?" Lady Lilac asked, "Amelia mentioned Fallen Lilacs. Who are they?"

"Fallen Lilacs..." DraigFech sneered, "Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Dragon Girls who've been lead down paths of insanity, corruption and depression by outside forces, mainly rogue MasterSelves. They are, for all intents and purposes, broken. And our highest priority."

"Oh..." Lady Lilac cringed a bit, "Are...are you a Fallen Lilac?"

DraigFech looked a bit bitter, "...I used to be."

"Oh joy..." came War Lilac's voice. She sounded the same as any other Lilac, but with a sickening sting to it, like she had lost her moral compass overnight, "It's the Miss Goody Two Shoes Lilac. My personal fave. Didn't you capture me a few weeks ago? And left me in considerable pain?"

"I believe I did..." Lady Lilac stammered, the awkwardness showing in her voice, "Now I'm aware I didn't exactly treat you well back then..."

"You threw me though three plate glass windows, you hussy!"

"B-But I'm here now to help you all with your problems. I am a...motivational speaker, you could say."

"So, you're another one'a US, are ya?" the soldier Lilac spoke in a gruff tone.

"Yeah, are you one of those no-fun good ones?" the armoured Lilac asked, her voice higher-pitched and almost squeaky.

"looks like one of 'em," came the singed Lilac, her voice low-pitched and mumbled, "looks like the sort of person to be dragon her feet."

The last Lilac, the waterlogged one, said nothing at first, but she eventually (and slowly) turned to Lady Lilac, with what could only be described as a thousand wailing cries spilling out of her mouth alongside the dirty water, "ArE yOu GoInG tO hElP uS? wIlL yOu MaKe Us FeEl BeTtEr?"

Lady Lilac was taken aback by the last voice, but she collected her nerves and continued, "I am. Here to calm you and your troubles. Now, since this is the first meeting, I suppose it would be the most logical to introduce ourselves by name and universe. I am Lady Lilac of FP-003, Queen of Shang Mu and Warrior Princess. You?"

DraigFech looked blank when Lady Lilac turned to her, "...Oh. I told you kid, I'm not Lilac. I don't come from anywhere."

Lady Lilac appreciated the good talk and turned to the others silently. One after the other, they spoke their names.

"War Lilac, FP-115"

The waterlogged one, "DrOwNeD lIlAc, FP-009." Lady Lilac just barely got, "Drowned Lilac" and her stomach took an unexpected plunge.

The armoured one, "EVIL Lilac, FP-231!"

The singed one, "sans lilac, FP-356."

And the soldier, "Freedom Snake, FP-MGS." Every Lilac turned to look at her incredulously, which she took with a sneer, "What? Not EVERY Lilac has to be CALLED Lilac."

"SO..." DraigFech barked, hauling a large and rather unusual domed machine into the centre of the room on a trolley, "This is what we are going to do. This Lilac here, this...Lady Lilac, I beleive, will talk with you over the weeks in an attempt to help with your conditions and...issues. But before all else, she needs to know exactly what made you. So we have this new technology, the boffins in the Science Wing call it the DresmScape. It reads the brainwaves that appear during dream-related activities and translates them into visual images. Static ones, but still. We shall test it on Lady Lilac first, to prove it's safe."

"Wait, wha-" was Lady Lilac could get out before DraigFech added a basin-shaped device to the DreamScape on a hose and plopped the basin on Lady Lilac's head like a hat. Almost instantly her mind became a blank, leaving her arching forward and going limp but otherwise staying upright. Her senses went numb as her face fell, a soft murmur subconsciously escaping her throat with a silver of dribble down her mouth. The draining feeling finally ceased as the memories were taken and recreated and DraigFech looked with an odd sense of satisfaction as she walked over to Lady Lilac and snapped her fingers in front of her. The latter recoiled almost instantly, blurting out gibberish as her body and mind came back to life and she regained conscious.

"Y-yes Majister, just eating my cereal!" she blurted out, eventually coming to her senses and looking around, bleary-eyed, "Uh...wha...what happened?"

"As I said, new technology. Got a few kinks to work out of it yet. Still, this should be enough. How was it for you?"

"I..." Lady Lilac gibbered, "I feel like I want to say some REALLY specific things. About...my backstory."

DraigFech smiled again, "Well then?"

Lady Lilac got to her feet, clearing her throat as the DreamScape machine chugged and whirred behind her. The cylinder on the front of it spewed a light into the upper areas of the room, projecting a sort of cosmic fog that darkened the room and created an image in its wake. It was of...that scene. Every single Lilac in the room winced painfully at the mere thought of it; another Lilac, deep within a thermal base, shackled to a pillar with a hateful, smirking green insect alien in orange power armour cackling in glee as the poor dragon girl was electrocuted to within an inch of her life. War Lilac cringed, while Sans Lilac kept her bored frown.

"So?" Freedom Snake growled, "She got a million volts up the ass. We ALL have."

"That does seem to be the case..." DraigFech mused, "A common factor of all Fallen Lilacs. They all start here..." her voice became haunted, and it became clear she was talking about herself, "All of them."

"This is how we all start," Lady Lilac sighed, looking up at the image, "We as Lilacs, as heroes, we're born in this flash of light. This agony, this...this torture."

"Not that it affects them," War Lilac crowed bitterly, "Most Lilacs get into those healing baths! They go FULL Mary-Sue and walk away."

"But not everyone..." Lady Lilac's own voice became haunted, "Some died, some went mad. I knew most perished among Brevon's forces, they'd turn into either corpses or his servants. I wasn't going to join those statistics..."

The image above them misted over and demisted soon after, a changed and more violent picture. It was the same scene, with the machine broken, Brevon on the floor...and Lilac plunging his bleeding dagger into his chest.

"I wanted to SURVIVE."

The scene changed again, this time to the Throne Room where this story began. Only this time it was The Majister, a bird-creature with face encased in shadow, seeing the battered and charred Lilac before him and his cohorts, the pandas General Gong and Priestess Neera-Li. Lady Lilac cleared her throat and begun again, "After I, uh, dealt with Brevon, I tried to go back to Jade Creek to find Carol and Milla, to apologise for what I'd put them through. Instead I just found a darn ambush waiting for me. Next thing you know, my aching body's being dragged in chains towards the Majister's throne room in Shang Mu. After my daring escape (and beating the tar out of his second-in-command), I was certain the man was going to finally execute me. The Thief who Turned Her Back, the potential hero of Planet Avalice, with her head in a bucket. But that didn't happen...he offered me a job."

The other Lilacs all looked confused and somewhat annoyed, while War Lilac just grumbled and pouted, like she had heard all of this before. The image changed once more to a shot of this Lilac, still charred but now in the same clothes as she was wearing now, training alongside Neera-Li and General Gong. They were smashing targets and knocking arrows out of the air with their weapons. Lady Lilac was using something most unusual; her two separated tendrils, now a glowing and twisted-knot whip, "He said he had seen how I took down Brevon and went to apologise to my friends. He decided, despite my past, I had the strength, the will and the courage to lead Shang Mu in his honour. He kept me under his wing, trained me in secret, and gave me all-powerful weapons. Brevon's Blade, which I, uh...borrowed, and my tendrils turned into a whip, both submerged in the healing baths and blessed by the Kingdom Stone to become holy weapons that would smite all evil."

"Don't I know it?" War Lilac grumbled again, "Freaking Mary-Sue..."

"So what, did the torture just not affect you that much?" Evil Lilac grinned in a sickening manner, "Did it set you free?"

"At first? Yeah it affected me..." Lady Lilac said with no hint of shakiness, while an image of her doubled over and panicking with tears streaming down her face was shown in the fog, "It kept coming back to haunt me, I got panic attack after panic attack. The Majister's therapists couldn't help me, and no other kingdom could know I was a thing. It looked like my memories would be the end of me...but..." the image shifted to see this Lilac being comforted by a figure, their features hidden under a large cloak that covered everything but their peach-skinned and smiling muzzle, "Someone came. A person from beyond my universe. He said he could help me. I met up with him every week, going through his therapies, calming my spirit and helping to get over my past. And...it worked. I no longer felt Brevon's influence clawing at my being. I could think, I could focus, and it helped me become what I am now. I never got the name of this mysterious stranger, just his profession...a Zonewalker...what exactly IS a Zonewalker?"

"Another of those odd sub-types," DraigFech explained, "You've got us, the Time Agents, then the No-Zone Police, then Multiverse Vigilantes...then at the very bottom are Zonewalkers. People who roam the multiverse to explore, to trade, to talk...to escape. Still, it was through this anonymous Zonewalker that this Lilac eventually came across the No-Zone Police and struck up a deal. Hence why we're here."

"Joy," Freedom Snake sighed.

The fog finally shifted away and Lady Lilac took the device off of her head, almost flooring her in the process, "Well, that's pretty much my story. I killed Brevon, I trained under the Majister and took over his role when he finally died years later. I'm still ruling it to this day...argh, that hurt. Does it have to be so draining?"

"At least until the technology is perfected," DraigFech said again, "So, how did you all see that. I found it...interesting, to say the least."

Once again, all the Lilacs spoke one after the other, giving their opinions in brief snippets.

"Freaking Mary-Sue..." War Lilac grumbled again.

"SoUnDs LiKe YoU hAd It LuCkY..." Drowned Lilac wailed.

"Needed more Majister death," Evil Lilac chirped.

"Not exactly a tough upbringing," Freedom Snake growled.

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" snored Sans Lilac. Freedom Snake took a single look at the sleeping skele-dragon by her side and groaned in frustration, tapping her lightly on the shoulder. Sans Lilac awoke, chuckling, "its alright kiddo. i got your life story. and i gotta say, its pretty...cool, i guess. but i sorta agree with the others in that you kinda got lucky in every part of that tale."

"Well, it DOES happen..." Lady Lilac said, trying not to offend, "I mean, not EVERY Lilac exists in the multiverse for someone else to maim and torture, right?" a silence filled the room, causing her to look around nervously, "R-right?"

"...asking the wrong lilac, kiddo," Sans Lilac sighed after a while, "well, who wants to go next? perhaps someone who has a backstory a bit more ab-war-rent?"

War Lilac cringed even further, "Geez, that was stretching it. And why me? Doesn't everyone know my backstory at this point?"

"Not EVERYONE," DraigFech said, holding the helmet in her hands, "Besides, I do believe some people would enjoy a refresher. Here we go."

There was a clang as the helmet of the device clapped onto War Lilac's head. As with Lady Lilac, her face fell and her body went limp as the machine processed her thoughts and dreams. Finally she regained consciousness and the fog reappeared, showing a different scene. This one showed the scene of Lilac and Carol finding Coalition of Planets agent Torque in the forest, what started this adventure for the majority of Lilacs. Only now someone else was there too. A hedgehog, clearly not from their world, with ravaged brown fur and sneering, angry eyes. His blue and black clothes were accentuated by the two most notable things on his person; a red scarf around his neck and a old and glowing dagger in his hands.

DraigFech growled, "...Traveller."

Lady Lilac turned to face her, "You know him?"

"We all do..." Evil Lilac said, "He...he's why we are what we are."

"It was, after all, him who gave me the tools and the attitude to become...well, me," War Lilac said, "It all started when Carol and I came across Torque. I hear a lot of people just met him, but there we were with this...edgelord, I suppose, with his large scarf and his talking Blade. Next thing you know, I'm being whisked away to a faraway adventure with him by my side. And he...urgh, he just made things worse. He badmouthed everyone, he killed Neera, basically got us thrown out of every kingdom we came across...but he never seemed to do it maliciously. It always felt like he wanted to escape what he did, but...he couldn't."

The fog swirled into another image, this one with Lilac and Milla and this Traveller sitting around a campfire, with an image of another form of Traveller above them in a speech bubble; this one lacked a scarf, instead having a green bandoleer and a muzzle with one side completely split open and stitched up again. War Lilac spoke up, "Carol despised him from the start, and killing Neera was the last straw. She..." War Lilac choked a bit, but continued, "She abandoned us for the Red Scarves again, and Traveller took the time to explain why he was. He said he used to be War Master, this warmonger, this creature hell-bent on destroying everything just because he could, and he was here to stop me becoming the same. This was when Torque was captured by Brevon, so I decided to save him and the day...alone."

The fog shifted to a scene roughly similar to Lady Lilac's first. Only now it seemed to be AFTER the torture had taken place, with Lilac already charred grey and hanging from the machine, but there was another, vaguely-new figure in front of her. He was like War Master, but even more ravaged and dishevelled with crazy black eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The image showed him with the Blade of Hysteria in his hand while War Lilac continued, "I was stupid. The guy caught me, fried me, mutilated me and then tried to kill me. But then along comes another of Traveller's past mistakes. A clone of himself. Next thing you know, Brevon's on the floor in a pool of his own blood, I've been shot through the stomach and the Blade of whatever-it-was is in MY hands."

Another shift of the fog showed this Lilac, charred and covered in bandages, doing an number of things; fighting Carol, fighting another War Lilac herself and looking like she was going stark-raving mad throughout the whole thing, "That Blade changed me. It whispered dark thoughts and made me violent. It urged me to kill, showed what it was like to revel in it. I resisted to the best of my abilities, but fighting your friends and yourself doesn't exactly help you. Carol came back, she promised me she'd fight to the end...and I chopped her hand off for it. I held on for a while, we got to fight this clone in the Final Dreadnought but...Milla..." War Lilac's eyes began to water, "P-Poor Milla..."

The fog vanished and War Lilac ripped the helmet off her head, "That's why I am what I am. Corruption, mental torture and I just...I lost everything. I lost my house, I lost my friends, I lost my innocence and sanity...I just lost my whole life."

"And replaced it with killing," DraigFech reminded.

War Lilac bowed her head down, with a small, depressive smile, "Yeah. Yeah. I guess you're right. Right, that's enough about my trauma conga line. Who's next?"

"OOH, OOH! ME!" Evil Lilac cried, jumping up and down and waving her arms like a fangirl.

"Hush, Evil Me, you'll ALL get your turn!" Lady Lilac called out, "I'm running this session and I say we do it clockwise. Besides, out of all of you, there's one backstory I REALLY wanna know..."

She turned to look at Drowned Lilac, who merely stared longingly at Sans Lilac's smirking form. She turned at the mention of her name, "WhO? mE?" Lady Lilac nodded, to which Drowned Lilac looked rather distressed, "PlEaSe No. YoU wOn'T lIkE wHaT i'Ve BeEn ThRoUgH. nO-oNe DoEs..." the others continued to stare at the waterlogged dragon for a while, making her even more nervous until, "...AlRiGhT. pUt ThAt On Me. YoU'lL bE sOrRy, ThOuGh..."

Lady Lilac sighed, but nevertheless picked up the device and planted it on Drowned Lilac's head. There was an etheral humming as the machine worked its magic. Drowned Lilac herself didn't respond like the other Lilacs, though; she actually seemed to become MORE responsive, looking calmer and just a tiny bit happier. The fogs formed once more and this time showed a different scene - this one was of Lilac, once again a mere and normal one, posing happily with another dragon like her. This one was far older and with darker scales and longer black horns. She wore a white shirt and black overcoat, her arm wrapped around Lilac and the other flashing a peace sign. Drowned Lilac spoke, her voice still etheral but a lot more stable, "I...I used to have a good life. I defeated Brevon, he never came back, I got vaguely famous. I had my whole life ahead of me. But it just happened. I ran into trouble with my relatives-"

"Which NONE of any other us have, by the way," War Lilac said.

The fog shifted again to being in front of an inside pool. It was the two dragons from before, only now in swimsuits with a steel pod in the background, "...Yes. I was lucky enough. After we incarcerated my power-mad uncle, my godmother decided to help me out somewhat. Her name was...Catalina. And she said she'd help me. Apparantly she thought I would've stood a better chance if I could've escaped Brevon's restraints during...that. So she decided to tie me up in a steel pod and throw me into the pool."

"...What?"

"It was some dumb training exercise," DraigFech turned to the confused Lady Lilac, "Restraints around the wrists and ankles, the pod spins around like a hedgehog in the water and she was timed to see how long it took for her to get out. And just to make it even more pointless, she was given a key. But...it went wrong, didn't it?"

"...Yes..." Drowned Lilac weeped. The image shifted to something truly horrifying. It was within the steel pod, deep within the water, with the key floating out of a hole in the pod. Water had long since rushed in and Lilac was clearly terrified, thrashing against her restraints to no avail. This image was even animated, like a gif, showing her struggling and screaming for mercy. Lady Lilac could only watch this, horrified and tears in her eyes. Drowned Lilac continued, "The pod had become damaged in transit. The pressure couldn't be contained and it blew a hole in the pod. It sank, kept spinning, the key floated out of my reach, I struggled and screamed and begged for help from Catalina...but the bitch had gone for coffee..." Drowned Lilac continued to sob as her old voice returned and the version of her in the image finally gave up the ghost and went limp, "...AnD i DrOwNeD."

The room had gone deathly silent. War Lilac and DraigFech had more neutral expressions, having seemingly heard it all before. Evil Lilac's happy face had dropped like a stone, showing genuine shock, while Sans Lilac had more of a surprised look on her never-changing face. Freedom Snake stared at the floor, then at Drowned Lilac, then back at the floor again. But Lady Lilac...mere words could not describe what she was experiencing. She was shivering and gibbering, arms wrapped around her waist, tears streaming down her face. She walked up to Drowned Lilac, herself looking up at the other without blinking, and quickly grabbed and hugged her tight. Lady Lilac was crying now, sobbing into her soggy counterpart's shoulder, whispering, "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."

"...well she did warn her," Sans Lilac said after an awkward silence, "i suppose you could say her ambitions went down with the-" she stopped, feeling DraigFech glower at her in rage, "...okay, never mind. probably not the best time."

"Yeah, bad time..." Freedom Snake turned to Sans Lilac, then back towards the still sobbing Lady Lilac, "So...does that happen to every Lilac who hears her story?"

"Of a sort," Evil Lilac shrugged, "I mean, there are more painful ways to die...but none THAT long and nightmarish."

"Oh trust me," Freedom Snake growled, "I can think of a few more ways. So..." she turned to DraigFech, "What now?"

"She's probably not going to be...responsive for a bit," DraigFech sighed, watching Lady Lilac stroke Drowned Lilac's ruined hair, "We should probably, uh...take a quick break."


	2. A Lilac or Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DeviantART Link: https://masterperrymartin.deviantart.com/art/Lady-Lilac-Butterfly-s-Tale-Part-2-643523617
> 
> Note that this is from before the Reboot and it technically Old World; hence why Drowned's backstory in this and Let Me Float don't match up.

**NO-ZONE**  
 **No Zone Prison, Rehabilitation Centre, FP-XXX MEETING ROOM 021 - FALLEN LILACS**  
 **Twenty Minutes After Previous Scene**  
 **Draigfech, Lady Lilac, Evil Lilac, Sans Lilac, Freedom Snake, War Lilac, Drowned Lilac**  
  
Back in the room, things were beginning to get back on track. Lady Lilac, after her breakdown from Drowned Lilac's terrible story, had finally stopped crying and was now merely hugging her soggy counterpart, still tussling at her ruined hair, eyes closed and deep in thought. Sans Lilac had fallen asleep long ago, which War Lilac eventually joined her in, while Evil Lilac and Freedom Snake kept themselves occupied with a few games of Rock Paper Scissors. DraigFech, who had been watching this display, had walked out of the room and was conversing with Amelia beyond the one-way mirror. Even now she was sitting in the grey room, sipping some coffee and watching Amelia's gaze from the comfort of her chair.  
  
"This...isn't exactly going to plan, is it?" DraigFech asked, "We were supposed to have this done quite some time ago."  
  
"Well, early days, early days," Amelia merely nodded, "And to be honest, everyone who hears Drowned's story either breaks out in tears or breaks out in a rage. Like what...well, what Traveller did."  
  
"You mean travel around the multiverse killing as many of those Catalinas as he could?" DraigFech asked, "Sounds pretty logical to me."  
  
"Yes, Catalina. Or Abagail, or Maxius. Or Natalya..." Amelia sighed, "I swear, whenever your relatives get involved, problems start to happen. Still, gotta keep working at it. We'll make better Lilacs out of 'em yet. Shall we continue?"  
  
"I suppose we should. Give me a sec to put it back on track," DraigFech sighed. She go up, and began to walk back into the room with all the Lilacs in it. She cleared her throat and began, turning to Lady Lilac in the process, "AHEM! Ms Lady Lilac, are you done yet?"  
  
"I...yes," Lady Lilac cleared her throat and let go of Drowned Lilac, "Sorry. I, uh...that was unprofessional."  
  
"It'S aLrIgHt..." Drowned Lilac wailed, "EvErYoNe AcTs LiKe ThAt WhEn ThEy DiScoVeR wHaT hApPeNeD tO mE."  
  
"What I don't understand is this;" Freedom Snake piped up, "What created you? Why're you like this? How did you, for lack of a better phrase, come back to life?"  
  
"WELL..." Drowned Lilac mulled over the idea, then put the device back on her head. The fog reformed and her voice became clear again, "I think I can tell you that. I think you might like this one a bit...better."  
  
The fog shifted to another new scene. It seemed to be the outside of a courtroom, with the aforementioned Catalina on the left, looking dejected but just a little bit smug. Even now, Lady Lilac could feel a deep, burning and quite unhealthy resentment towards this woman for her carelessness, and she could feel every other Lilac feel the exact same. On the other side was Lilac's old friends, no matter the universe; Carol Tea the Wildcat and Milla Basset the Hound. Milla was clearly catatonic with grief, staring hollow-eyed into the distance, while Carol was screaming at Catalina in fury, tears streaming down her eyes. Drowned Lilac continued, "Some were wondering whenever or not Catalina had purposefully let me drown, for reasons I'm not too sure of. Some even thought she was working with my evil uncle, who wanted to take over Planet Avalice for his own deeds. Some thought she was just careless. Regardless, she went to trail for my death and was up against a lot of her own family. But, I guess because they couldn't really turn on one of their own, she more or less got away with it. Jury called it manslaughter. Carol didn't take it lightly, to say the least. She called my entire family scum, cut of all possible ties to them, sent Milla off to another family that would take better care of her...and wandered off into the wilderness to die alone."  
  
"I know," DraigFech sighed, "Poor girl's pretty much wrecked herself. Drinks all day, fights all night, and she still doesn't know you came back."  
  
"I..." Drowned Lilac's voice faltered, "I dOn'T wAnT tO gO bAcK. tOo MaNy PaInFuL mEmOrIeS...tOo MaNy FeArS..." She cleared her throat again, and the fogs above shifted again to another new scene. This one surprised everyone in the room, bar DraigFech. It was back in the pool room, clearly now night time, with Catalina and someone quite familiar. Catalina was in great pain and incredibly fearful, bleeding profously and trying to drag herself across the room on her back with only one leg and an arm and a stump, trailing blood all the while, "ThIs TrAvElLeR yOu SpEaK oF wAs OnE oF tHeM. tHeY cAlLeD hIm ThE AvAlIcE bOgEyMaN. hE wAs OuR sPiRiT oF vEnGaNcE, sAiD tO sTrIkE dOwN uNrUlY oR mIsBeHaViNg TrOuBlEmAkErS. hE wAs OuR wArNiNg To BeHaVe...Or ElSe."  
  
The fog refocused and the image had become clear. Traveller was indeed the second person in the frame, walking coldly after the panicked Catalina with bleeding Blade of Hysteria outstretched. Something was different about him this time, though; he seemed to be glowing a bright white, limbs coated in crimsom blood, while his eyes had become black with enraged and bleeding pupils. DraigFech spoke again, "There was at least one part of that legend that was overly true; do something to truly anger him and he would go beyond mere rage. He and the demon in his blade would become one, creating what they just call...Hysteria. I know this bit; part of the No-Zone's report on the incident. Once he found out what Catalina had done, he went after her with a brutality we've never seen before. He cut off her left leg, reduced her right arm to a stump, even jammed some shrapnel in her throat, but he kept her alive. The sheer energy this form of his gives off, combined with the blood of the godmother draining into the pool...well, we're not sure what happened."  
  
"...I fElT cOlDnEsS," Drowned Lilac said again, watching the image shift to Catalina using a lifeguard's chair to stand up with her back to the pool, "I fLoAteD iN a BlAcK, eMpTy VoId. BuT I fElT tHe EnErGy AnD tHe BlOoD cOmBiNe...I fElT LIFE. I wAnTeD tO lIvE, aNd GeT rEvEnGe..." the fog shifted slightly, showing a more monstrous Drowned Lilac rising out of the pool, grabbing Catalina and pulling both of them back under the water's surface from which blood began to form, "I wAs NoT mErCiFuL. i ToRe HeR tHrOaT oUt LiKe I wAnTeD tO dO wItH bReVoN. bUt I fElT nO jOy FrOm It. I hAd NoWhErE eLsE tO gO. sO i WeNt WiTh...HiM. TrAvElLeR tOlD mE eVeRyThInG hE cOuLd. I'm A wRaItH. a TrUlY vEnGeFuL sPiRiT. i WaNtEd To LeAvE aNd MoVe On BuT I...I CaN't."  
  
The fog finally vanished as Drowned Lilac removed the helmet and gave it to Evil Lilac, who tussled with it playfully in her lap. Lady Lilac begun to speak, "I...I don't know what to say. I mean it's clear you've suffered...a lot...and now you can't even move on. Trapped between life and death. I honestly can't say anything more than 'I'm Sorry'."  
  
"It'S oKaY..." Drowned Lilac sighed, "i UnDeRsTaNd. So, WhO wAnTs To Go nExT?"  
  
"ME! ME! ME!" Evil Lilac screamed, plopping the device on her head. Once more the odd sounds occurred and Evil Lilac began to drool a little, but Lady Lilac could swear she was enjoying it. The fog reformed yet again, this time showing a very different scene; it was some sort of secret base, one populated by a number of unusual species and characters, including a very familiar Torque. Traveller was once again there, seemingly talking to Torque and pointing at something on the nearby whiteboard. Evil Lilac lept up out of her chair and struck a silly pose, "Welcome to the fabulous retelling of the dark and gritty origin story of yours truly! And it starts with THIS chucklenut again! You see, one day he stops killing people randomly and thinks to himself, 'Hey, I want to stop Lilacs from across the multiverse from being fed through that electrical thresher. But I'm too much of a big poopy butthole," DraigFech quietly facepalmed in the distance, "To do it myself. So I know what I'll do! I'll tell the Coalition of Planets what's about to happen to Planet Avalice and capture Brevon before he even lands on the planet! GENIUS!' So that's what he does, capturing Serpentine and stopping Brevon from taking over the Shuigang Royal Palace, but he makes a MASSIVE mistake when he decides to go after Brevon...alone."  
  
The fog shifted to the first scene every Lilac saw, that of the torture chamber under the Thermal Base with Brevon at the controls. But instead of Lilac tied to the machine, it was Traveller, battered and bruised. Evil Lilac giggled in a suitably evil fashion and spoke, "Well, that went well for him! He was the one to end up in that infernal machine, with a million types of volts up his tight little hedgehog backside. Brevon overpowered him without an issue and hooked him up the mains. He overheard him talking about what the future entailed and he wanted to know who this person that was destined to stop him was. Traveller remained tight-lipped, even after five or so shocks, until he grew a bit cocky. THEN he boasted that it'd be Sash Lilac, yours truly, that would end his repulsive regime. Brevon thanked him for the info, and...well, he did THIS to him!"  
  
The fog animated again, giving Traveller his supposed sixth shock. His glasses had long melted onto the floor and parts of his face at this point, and it seemed that something rather fragile was to give way. To his thankfully soundless screaming, Traveller opened his eyes and they exploded, splattering them all over Brevon, before he went limp. Much like the scene with Drowned Lilac, every Lilac responded this time. Freedom Snake and Sans Lilac sat there in total stunned silence, Drowned Lilac cried even heavier from the shock, War Lilac looked like she was about to be sick and Lady Lilac already was, heaving heavily into a bucket. Even the otherwise unflappable DraigFech stood silently, lips quivering. Evil Lilac just looked really proud.  
  
"...right," Sans Lilac gulped, visibly unnerved, "i can see how that would be a shocking development."  
  
"Uh, any chance you can cut down on the lame puns?" Freedom Snake growled. Sans Lilac shrugged.  
  
"can't. it's just in my nature. it's like telling someone with eczema to stop scratching. or telling you to not sound like a broken parrot animatronic everytime you hear the word, 'metal gear'."  
  
"METAL GEAR?!" Freedom Snake growled again, face warping into one of stoic shock. It took a few seconds for her to realise what had happened, then glared at the chuckling Sans Lilac, "HEY!"  
  
"Wonderful, isn't it? Brevon did that to him. Blew his eyes out of his sockets. Blinded him completely, of course. Ooooooohhhhh..." Evil Lilac did something that could only be described as moaning with pleasure, blushing heavily, "Isn't Brevon just the best? Ain't he dreamy?"  
  
"Dreamy?" DraigFech twitched as Lady Lilac put the bucket of sick in the corner. DraigFech twitched again, then exploded, "DREAMY?!" she dashed across the room, clawing at Evil Lilac furiously, only to be held back by Lady Lilac and Freedom Snake.  
  
"Draig, what're you doing?!" Freedom Snake yelped in surprise, "Stand down! I repeat, stand down!"  
  
"GET OFF ME!" DraigFech screamed as she thrashed around, "HOW DARE YOU, YOU FAKE?! HE ALMOST KILLS EVERY ONE OF US AND YOU CALL HIM DREAMY!? I'LL-"  
  
She stopped, suddenly going limp in Lady Lilac's arms. Behind her was War Lilac, holding an empty syringe in her hands, "Heh, not so different after all, are ya?"  
  
"...What the heck did you do?" Lady Lilac asked.  
  
"Simple," War Lilac juggled the syringe around, "Shot of Antiherosime. Stops most Warmongers in their tracks. Calms them down, too. She should be fine. I know it works. Because I know it only works on Warmongers like me..." she knelt down, pulling DraigFech's hood off. Lady Lilac couldn't believe her eyes, as under DraigFech's hood was...War Lilac! Same fur colour, same scars and stitches, the same black eyes even. She was out of it, mumbling in her dazed woes, and seemingly crying with stress.   
  
Lady Lilac stared around her and then back to War Lilac, "I have SEVERAL questions..."  
  
"It's a long story," War Lilac sighed, "But now ain't the time for it. Better get through all this before we continue, yes?" Lady Lilac slowly nodded, hauling DraigFech to the corner of the room and keeping her upright. War Lilac responded with a smug smile, "Nice. So, Evil Me, any particular reason you think Brevon's so dreamy?"  
  
"Well..." Evil Lilac mused, the fog shifting again. This time it was Lilac, tied by the ankles and wrists to a table, while Brevon leered over her with a number of torture tools in his hand, "Brevon knew everything about me. He captured me on the spot, right from my home, after ensuring neither Carol or Milla could come after me. He even showed me their crisp remains as he stuck a million vaults up the jacksie and two plus machetes through each tendril! That was..." the smile temporarily vanished from her face as she drew a deep sigh, "Yeah, tha-that was fun. ANYWAY!" she clapped and the fog shifted to a full view of Evil Lilac as she was now, only standing tall and with a face of cold, murderous calculation, "Bare in mind this all happened BEFORE I was supposed to become Super Heroine Wonder Dragon! Or Mary Sue, as a lot of people call us. I had no idea I was going to be a hero, I didn't even know the sort of life in front of me, I was just some random schmoe who suddenly got kidnapped by a massive green beefca-I MEAN UGLY STINKING ALIEN and tortured for an entire month. My mind snapped like a shellduck's spinal column. It didn't take long for old breadbasket to create the perfect warrior in me. Someone cold, someone who could be told to hold ALL his weapons and reduce anyone he didn't like to mulch!"  
  
Then came another, rather unusual scene from somewhere inside the Final Dreadnought. It was two scenes, actually. One was Amelia, tapping something into a console that Evil Lilac was hooked too, resulting in her making a rather goofy, yet somehow relaxed face as little birds and stars danced in a circle around her head. The second scene showing Evil Lilac, seemingly fangirling, tackle-hugging a very angry Brevon from behind. Evil Lilac spoke up again, "Went a bit wrong though. Turns out Amelia didn't like the fact Lord Dreamboat cooked a personal friend of her's. So she thought, after rescuing him, she'd mess around with my braincells to get back at him. What she did, you see, was download someone else's personality into my brain. Gone was the frankly boring cold and calculative super-evil overlord me! This new me was ALL about Brevon. I, for lack of a better word, became his very first fangirl! And why not? He's so drea-" she stopped mid-phrase, clearing her throat, "I-I mean, he's a nice guy when you get to know him. He didn't exactly appreciate that, as you can tell. I wasn't much use to him when I was constantly squeeing over him and asking for his autograph...which I still got in the end. A few more shocks later and now I'm just sorta halfway where I started. He even gave me a special task to do; I've gotta find Traveller and finish the job!"  
  
The fog cleared again and Evil Lilac removed the helmet, "Right then! What did you people think my epic story?"  
  
"I think it could've done with a bit more death," War Lilac squinted, "Mainly, yours."  
  
"PeRhApS nOt THAT vIoLeNt..." Drowned Lilac wailed, "BuT, eVeN i CaN sEe ThAt YoU aRe A hOpElEsS sOuL."  
  
"yeah, she kinda has a point," Sans Lilac murmered, "i mean, you haven't exactly got a lot of ability to garner sympathy, do you? it's not that you're annoying...well yes it is that but there's also the fact you continuously fawn-m-bennet over the guy we all hate. unlike our war friend over there, how do we know there's even a trace of the real lilac left in there? for all we know, you're just really enjoying this."  
  
"Well, the whole 'obsession with Brevon' kinda helps," Evil Lilac shrugged, "But I dunno, I thought it was kinda worthy of an award. The Golden Mayor Award, at least..." she turned to her Lady counterpart, "How bout you, Milady? Anything to say?"  
  
"I do," Lady Lilac said, sitting on one of the chairs, "I honestly don't know wherever to punch you or pity you. Because you're REALLY annoying...but perhaps mentally you're the worst off. I mean, War Lilac has problems and Drowned Lillly...yeah, but at least they're vaguely intact. You? I can't see a single shred of what makes us Lilac in you. You're just...you're just Serpentine with kinky armour!"  
  
"Well, I try my best," Evil Lilac grinned, "Right, who wants to be next?"  
  
"I tHiNk It ShOuLd Be ThE aRmY oNe," Drowned Lilac quivered, "hEr BaCkStOrY mIgHt Be InTeReStInG..."  
  
"I dunno..." Freedom Snake shrugged, "I'm not too sure what my backstory even is yet. How 'bout you, Little Miss Lazypants?"  
  
"see, now you're speaking my language," Sans Lilac chuckled, turning to Evil Lilac, "Alright, Rose, gimme that thing and let's see what it's got."  
  
The helmet was placed on Sans Lilac's head and she almost instantly nodded off as the device scanned her brainwaves. The fog once more formed above the group, but this time showed nothing but static like an old TV. War Lilac's unamused face more or less said it all to everyone there and she got up out of her seat, wandered over to Sans Lilac and gave her a mighty smack on cheek with such force as to throw her off her chair. Sans Lilac grumbled from the pain of the slap, then slowly got back onto her chair and began to concentrate. The fog shifted to the same torture scene as it almost always showed at this point, with Lilac tied to the pillar and Brevon by the controls. However, this time Traveller was sitting by Lilac's side, tied up and with his own Blade lodged firmly in his sternum. Everyone in the group, Lady Lilac included, groaned in annoyance at seeing this unpleasant individual yet again.  
  
"Traveller Traveller Traveller Traveller TRAVELLER!" War Lilac screamed, "DOESN'T THIS GUY GET THE HINT?!"  
  
"perhaps it's a hermit thing," Sans Lilac shrugged, "actually, it's probably more guilt over what he did to you. it's funny, really. that's technically YOU, warmonger."  
  
"...'Scuse me?"  
  
"yeah, as it turns out," Sans Lilac twiddled her thumbs, putting them through the holes in her hands, "we're cut from the same brush, more or less. different strikes from the same blade. i went down one path, you went down another. all to do with timelines and universes, how they all collide and create. so...yeah, i more or less followed exactly what you ended up doing. meeting him in the forest, running from the mantis robot, killing neera in the jade creek, almost word for word. when i say almost, i mean...well, this is not the traveller we've seen before. its actually an alternate. more or less the same guy, maybe a bit more depressed. you could tell he was weary. a tired traveller, you could say."  
  
"Uh, is his Blade glowing?" Lady Lilac asked as she observed the picture. The Blade lodged in the alternate Traveller's stomach was indeed beginning to glow ever brighter. The glow continued to increase in intensity, with even Brevon's face twisting into one of pure fear. He slowly backed away from the controls, and seemingly began to plead with Traveller to stop the glowing. But he didn't; it seemed the wound in his stomach had completely winded him, and he seemingly gave one final chuckle as he tipped his head backwards and stopped moving. Finally, there was a massive green explosion that smothered the entire scene in its flames, even causing some of the sound to escape the fog and rumble among the Lilacs, who were rocked or thrown out of their chairs from the force of it. Lady Lilac was the first to her feet, "The heck was that?!"  
  
"the traveller's trap," Sans Lilac giggled, "that explosion was his blade of hysteria going critical. it's something they can all do, you see. he told me about it. each version across the timelines had the ability to self-destruct, turning itself and everyone around it into a small pile of ash in the process. except...me. i avoided becoming a big old bunch of granules, and I woke up on the side of a riverbed in the jade creek. now i know explosions can carry you, but i didn't think they were that strong."  
  
The image shifted focus to another scene of the still charred Lilac sitting by the water's edge, looking at something in front of her. A small pillar of water was forming in front of her, through a grisly hole in the palm of her hand. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were glowing a powerful blue as she stood shocked at the scene in front of her. Sans Lilac spoke up again, "i spent a lot of time in that creek. i couldn't go back to my old home, and there was no way i would either be allowed into shang tu or make it to the other two kingdoms. i had nowhere to go, and nothing to do outside tending to the wounds i had gained from the shocks and the explosion. i thought my life as i knew it was at an end. but then...something incredible happened to me. a power i just never had before. turns out the blade didn't use up all the energy in its explosion, and a lot of it ended up in me. i became, a power-pack for these new abilities. they're cool, actually. watch."  
  
Sans Lilac closed her eyes and focused incredibly hard. Lady Lilac looked on in awe as water in a cup War Lilac was drinking out of was slowly lifted out of the cup, moving around the room with an impressive amount of speed. Sans Lilac looked smug, "see? i got me the powers of h2overdrive, heh heh. of course the powers started off weak and i got better at it..." the fog shifted again while the water still circled the room. This time it showed Sans Lilac in battle against some lizard that almost looked familiar. Sans Lilac was calm and collected, merely thrusting one of her hole-bearing hands forward with which came two massive jets of seemingly scalding water. There was an ice wall behind the lizard, which already had blood on it, with what could only be described as a massive animal skull hovering over her preparing to fire a massive blue laser. Sans Lilac looked a bit smug, "water jets, water walls, ice powers, heck i even got these two laser cannons! i think they're called gaster blasters or something, but i prefer to call 'em carol cannons."  
  
"Interesting..." Lady Lilac said in awe as she studied the image, "Tell me, Sans Lilac, uh do you use these powers for evil or for good? ...Sans?"  
  
A loud snoring perforated the room and Lady Lilac turned to look back at Sans Lilac. Lo and behold, she had somehow fallen asleep again, limp in her chair and some dribble running down her cheek. War Lilac spoke up, "Oh yeah, that's her weakness. Those powers, ya see, leave her physically and mentally fragile. So she cracks easily and tends to have about as much energy as Carol on a good day."  
  
"An irritating characteristic," Lady Lilac sighed in an annoyed fashion, "Uh, Evil Me, could you..."  
  
Evil Lilac nodded happily and excitedly, bounding over to Sans Lilac and rigerously shaking her awake. She gasped with the shock and got up, causing the fog above to float away once more and leave the room clear. The water that had still been in the air finally came down from nothing to support it, splashing all over War Lilac and soaking her from head to chest. She yelled as the water splashed over her, and groaned as she failed to enjoy the cold and soggy feeling, shaking herself dry like a wet dog. Sans Lilac sighed, removing the helmet device, "well yeah, that's kinda my story. i didn't do anything really awesome with my powers. by the time i'd managed to train them to a good enough standard, good ol' carol and milly girl managed to destroy what remained of breadbasket's forces and put prince fail to justice. i mean i did come back to see 'em when it was over, but i don't think they appreciated my company all that much. i mean, i AM a bit lazy, even i admit that. i felt like i didn't belong in my own world anymore. so i decided to...move on. and join war lilly's team of crackpot lilacs."  
  
"Aww yeah!" War Lilac crowed, sounding proud of herself, "The League of Extraordinary Lilacs, baby!"  
  
The room was silent for a few seconds at this outburst, before Freedom Snake spoke up, "...L.E.L?"  
  
"i chose the name, if you couldn't tell cardboard," Sans Lilac smirked, "it's me, war lilly, soggy sue over there, a good dose of evilina for good measure and another one that's not here...for some reason. i dunno. right, i think there's only one of us left. the last lilac to litigate us with her literary backstory. and that..." she turned to Freedom Snake, "is you, snakey."  
  
"...Alright," Freedom Snake sighed, grabbing the helmet device and placing it upon her head. Much like Sans Lilac, Freedom Snake was almost instantly out when the device began working, causing to flop to the floor like she had been tased. The other Lilacs all looked around, quite uneasy, before Freedom Snake sprung up and and got back into her chair, panting, "Ch-Christ...that was like getting tranq'd! Anyway, it's over now...here's my story. I think you'll probably like it."  
  
"Has it got killing? Murder? Bloodshed? WORSHIP OF BREVON?!" Evil Lilac asked, getting increasingly manic.  
  
"...All of that except the last one," Freedom Snake said quickly.  
  
"Eh, three outta four ain't bad," Evil Lilac shrugged. The fogs above them formed for the final time, this time showing a very, very different scene to anything that had been shown previously. It seemed to be the Red Scarves, judging by the fact that Spade, Lilac and Carol were all working together among the crowd. But something was incredibly off about them. Each, rather than dressed in ninja garb, were all decked out in spy suits and combat gear; bandoleers, belts, harnesses and about a million magazines and grenades to each person. Lilac was dual-wielding two pistols, ones that Lady Lilac recognised as "M9A1" models, while Spade was holding what seemed to be an "RPK-12" from what she could make out from the writing on the side of his gun. Carol, on the other hand, was merely swinging a sword around, all three attacking some off-screen threat.  
  
Freedom Snake growled, miming lighting a cigar before she remembered she didn't have one, "Well, as you can see, I come from a VERY different dimension to any of you. From what the boffins in this No-Zone have told me, it's more or less a merging of two distinct universes; the standard one we all come from and this other one that goes by the name of "MGS". I...don't even pretend to understand the details. But yeah, I started out as a soldier. Part of a group, we called ourselves Foulards Rouges."  
  
"French for Red Scarves," Lady Lilac smiled, "Clever. So, you come a world of total anarchy."  
  
"Not as in the same manner as The Pain over there, no," Freedom Snake growled, pointing to War Lilac in the process, "We were entirely militaristic. Shuigang, our main base of operations, was all about war. Thrived off it. The other two tried to be more peaceful, but that only resulted in more attacks from us, stealing supplies so we could arm ourselves to steal more supplies. It wasn't exactly the most moral of any job, but at least it was...thrilling. It's what gave me the codename I have now; Freedom Snake. I like it. It's very butch."  
  
"So, pointless violence?" Evil Lilac grinned, "Sounds like my kinda 'verse! Where can I sign up?"  
  
"Nice thought, but don't bother," Freedom Snake sighed, "They're long gone. My supposed superior, Majesty Snake, managed to get the drop on us somehow. We think there may have been a mole in the organisation. Our base was burnt to the ground by his own team of crackpot mercenaries, known as BASSETHOUND. Those who weren't arrested on the spot tended to scatter - and most of those who did tended to get arrested anyway. Carol did, but she was lucky. Majesty Snake saw what she was capable off when it came to CQC and decided to make her captain of his guard. The next time I saw her was two years later. I had become a mercenary by this time, doing my own work to keep food on my rusty table. She had become this real badass ninja person, they called her The Grey Wildcat and she was the very best when it came to swordplay. Just a shame she tended to have nervous breakdowns and scream about "the medicine". Even now I'm not sure what happened to make her...like that."  
  
The fog shifted again, this time to Freedom Snake and Grey Wildcat looking over a huge pit of fire and destruction, with debris from what seemed to be Shang Mu at the bottom of it. In the middle of the pit, standing strong amongst the flames, was a massive mecha that resembled Brevon's own personal battleship that almost every Lilac remembered him using on them in the Battle Glacier. Freedom Snake cleared her throat, "Apart from that, my story goes down a similar path, up to a certain point. We met Torque, this time the leader of the Coalition of Planets, and he told us all about the plan to steal the somehow-unchanged Kingdom Stone from the sacred temple. Only then did we find out what had happened to Spade after all these years; the guy had fallen in with some powerful megalomaniac from beyond the stars. You call him Lord Brevon but around where I come from? He was known as Brevon Boss. And this here was his most powerful weapon, his own Final Dreadnought. A powerful nuclear-power mecha that could turn entire cities to sludge. They were called...Metal Gear."  
  
War Lilac piped up, "Metal Gear?"  
  
Freedom Snake responded, "Metal Gear."  
  
"Metal Gear?"  
  
"Metal Gear!"  
  
"Metal Gear?!"  
  
"METAL GEAR!"  
  
"Bugger me..." War Lilac said, mocking an expression of confusion and placing her hand on her forehead, "Well then. What went wrong? How did BreadBoss torture you?"  
  
Freedom Snake looked a bit blank, then a bit sceptical, "What d'ya mean by that?"  
  
"Well it's no secret, is it?" War Lilac asked, "Lilly Lady said it herself; we're all born from what that insect monster did to us."  
  
"WeLl..." Drowned Lilac said quietly.  
  
"Well yes, MOST of us," War Lilac shrugged, "But come on. What did he do? Did he cut your tendrils off and zap ya like a mosquito?"  
  
"...Well, yes," Freedom Snake noticed. The fog shifted to another brand new scene, but it wasn't the one everyone was expecting. Rather than that scene...AGAIN, it was instead Freedom Snake post-shock. She was singed, with patches of grey fur across her head and body, lacking her tendrils and wearing a white tank top with a cyan blue jacket, a magenta headband and grey trousers with combat boots. She was hiding behind a wall, some of the eye troopers Brevon tended to employ searching for her on the other side, a silenced pistol in her hands, "There's...no point of going through that scene yet again, so let's, uh...skip it. The guy thought he had put me out of the running by dumping my medium-rare body in the middle of that freaking forest. But I was a mercenary; I wasn't going to give up just because someone decided to stick a shiv in my belly. If you get my drift. I didn't have any of my old speed left, so I had to take it all a bit...slow. Forced to use stealth, I had to slink around the enemies as quietly and as quickly as I possibly could. One wrong move, one small error...and I was finished..." Freedom Snake accentuated her point by drawing her thumb across her neck like a blade.  
  
The fog shifted for one last time, this time to a very unusual scene indeed. It showed the same pit of fire from before, the same Metal Gear, even. It also showed Freedom Snake and Brevon duking it out atop the burning machine, shirtless and scarred. The various Lilacs looked rather embarrassed, to say the least. Lady Lilac was the first to pipe up, "You, uh...you're naked."  
  
"Sorta," Freedom Snake shrugged, "My shirt burnt off."  
  
"But your..." Lady Lilac found it hard to talk, "T-The breasts. Th-they're showing..."  
  
"So? Freedom Snake asked, "What's wrong with lettin' 'em breath every once in a while? Right, guys? ...Guys?"  
  
Most of the other Lilacs had begun to look away in embarrassment, bar War Lilac, who merely stared longingly at the topless display, "Hot."  
  
Freedom Snake was creeped out quite a bit by this...random outburst, but continued with the last few bits of her story nevertheless, "Anyway, this was the final battle. I did everything I could to get here. I took out his comrades, I disabled his Metal Gear, heck I even ended up destroying the Kingdom Stone JUST to keep it outta his hands! With nothing left to lose, Brevon invited to one final do-or-die destination; a battle on top of his precious Metal Gear. It was hard, lemme tell you. The guy's strong but he's also fast. Like, REAL fast. Even I couldn't keep up with him, I had no advantages against someone like him. Even my pistols did nothing to even dent him, and...well, it looked like I was finally gonna die by his hands. Until...well, this happened."  
  
The fog began to animate, showing Lilac kneeling on the floor and Brevon poised to deliver the killing blow. But he stopped, like he had been paused, and then he seemed to scream repeatedly in pain as a number of what seemed to energy blades came out of nowhere and sliced him endlessly, tossing him each across the Metal Gear as more and more blood spurted from nowhere. The slashes stopped after about thirty of them and Brevon looked relatively unharmed...until he finally stopped breathing and practically exploded into a shower of giblets and gore. Behind him, being covered in the giblets just as much as the confused Freedom Snake, was some sort of hedgehog cyborg, wielding a glowing katana. Freedom Snake began to grimace, "...Yeah, turns out I ran into Traveller too. Only this one was from my verse. Some sorta...super ninja, called himself The Travelling Wind. I remember rescuing someone like him from Brevon's forces. He was actually going into the torture chamber instead of me, but...guess I helped him get away. He even said to me, once all those body parts came down to earth...he said we were equal then."  
  
The fog dissipated for the final time, and Freedom Snake took off the helmet, "And that's really it. With that, I returned to army life. Spade had been removed from Brevon's control with his death and used his power (and his brother's wealth) to rebuild Shang Mu in his image. It even used the reactor from the Metal Gear to give it a ton of energy, more or less replaced the Kingdom Stone as our powerful maguffin. We called it Father's Homebase, and he started a brand new military team there..." Freedom Lilac sighed and looked a tad dejected, "Well, until one of those chucklenuts called the Elder Masters took over our dimension. They thought the best thing they could do to it was fill it to the brim with fucking zombies. I gave up and left it to basically live HERE, haven't gone back ever since."  
  
"...Dang," Evil Lilac sighed, "No place to call home, eh? Don't worry, I know that's like!"  
  
"I can imagine," Freedom Snake growled, "Can't exactly be welcome when you're like," she put on a mockery of Evil Lilac's squeaky voice, "Hoi, Oi'm Evil Loilac! I just LOOOOOOOVE Lord Brevon, just thinking about him makes me shudder as I long to stick my tendrils up his ass and suck on his-"  
  
"HEY!" Evil Lilac yelled back, obviously flustered, "K-Keep it friendly, yeah?!"  
  
"Well..." Lady Lilac sighed, switching off the DreamScape device. It let out a final hum before it went totally silent and she stepped to the middle of the room, "And with that, I see we have all explained ourselves. We all know each other's backstories. That's all we have time for, I'm afraid, but I do have a number of things to say...to ALL of you."  
  
She turned to War Lilac, who was facing away from Lady Lilac pouting with her arms crossed, "War Me..." she sighed quickly, "Look, I see what's wrong. You lost so much, all because of Traveller. I will help you any way I can, I'll revive your Milla if that's what it takes but please..." Lady Lilac seemed to beg a bit, "No matter what the voices in your head say, please stop killing."  
  
"Yeah yeah..." War Lilac growled, still looking away and dismissing what Lady Lilac said with a wave of her hand.  
  
Lady Lilac then turned to Drowned Lilac, giving her another small hug, "Dr-Drowned Me...I am so sorry. I'll do whatever I can to make it up to you."  
  
"YoU cAn TeLl CaRoL i'M sTiLl ArOuNd..." Drowned Lilac sighed, "...ThAt'D bE nIcE..."  
  
Then Lady Lilac turned to Evil Lilac, "As for you...I'll personally make sure you get a LOT of therapy."  
  
"What, can't stand me holding my enemies closer?" Evil Lilac cackled, "For shame. At least I'm not fawning over Spade anymore..."  
  
Lady Lilac resisted the urge to punch her alternate and turned to Sans Lilac, "Punny Me...you're just...weird."  
  
"i do my best," Sans Lilac gave a thumbs up, "pleasure to meet you, milady."  
  
And finally, she turned to Freedom Snake, "Uh...okay, you're really cool."  
  
"I suppose I should be grateful for that," Freedom Snake said happily, cracking a smile for the first time, "Thanks for droppin' by."  
  
"And...that's it, really," Lady Lilac said, "That went well."  
  
"I dOn'T kNoW..." Drowned Lilac sighed again, "iT fElT lIkE iT dRagGeD oN fOr ToO lOnG."  
  
Freedom Snake shrugged, "Kinda felt like the whole thing got derailed with Drowned Me and...well, that other one with the hood. Draigoch, was it?"  
  
"DraigFech," Lady Lilac reminded, "And yeah, that's a good point. I mean, she's War Lilac but she ISN'T War Lilac but War Lilac is here as War Lilac!"  
  
"Please, we're laymen, spare us the jargon," Evil Lilac sneered, "Well, perhaps she should speak for herself on the matter, eh?"  
  
"That's good. Drai...uh..." Lady Lilac stopped mid-phrase as she turned to see that DragFech was missing from the position she had placed her in when she passed out. She heard some sort of sobbing from the direction of the hidden room to the side of this one, and burst out of the meeting room in response. She quickly dived into the hidden room, leaving both doors wide open, to see the inside of the hidden room itself. It was grey, spacious, almost like the control room in a recording studio, with a number of seats aimed at the other room that was observable via the hidden mirror and about a million cups of coffee on display. DraigFech was in front of a somewhat embarrassed Amelia, on her knees and with her head buried in her hands as she apologised repeatedly and tearfully.  
  
"I'm sorry!" DraigFech sobbed.  
  
"Lilly, it's alright, I-" Amelia tried to say.  
  
"I'M SORRY!" DraigFech sobbed again.  
  
"Lilac, it's alright!" Amelia said again, trying to comfort the sobbing and uncloaked DraigFech.  
  
"Uh, can someone tell me what's going on here?" Lady Lilac asked, pointing to the now silent DraigFech, "Is THAT War Lilac?!"  
  
"For lack of a better term, yes," Amelia sighed, heaving DraigFech into a chair and helping herself to another, "It's...kind of a long story. I don't suppose you wanna hear it."  
  
"I've heard a lotta backstories today, Miss. Including my own..." Lady Lilac sighed, taking another chair, "What's one more?"  
  
"Fair enough. I'll skip the DreamScape thing, I'm sure you can picture it yourself..." Amelia took another sip of coffee, "Well, basically one of the reasons War Lilac is always so cranky is because she's gonna die. Not of old age, mind. At some unavoidable point in her timeline, she has to go back to her own universe and let Traveller blow her brains out. She's roaming the multiverse 'cause she only has so much time."  
  
"Good grief, that's terrible!" Lady Lilac gasped, "But...why is SHE here, then?"  
  
"What, DraigFech?" Amelia asked, to which Lady Lilac nodded, "Well, that bit's a bit simpler. War Lilac can't avoid this fate. It's destiny. Even the Zone Cops aren't allowed to tamper with someone's timeline even if it DOES result in a better future. We've already got enough trouble on our hands, a paradox or ten million is more than we can handle. But...you know, Chronomancer. Control of time and all that," she leaned forward and whispered deviously, "After all, what's the point of power if you don't abuse it, hmm?" she arched backwards again, "This isn't just some other War Lilac. She's the original. The definitive article, you might say. I saved her from Traveller's short-sighted wrath. 'Cause if he can try to redeem himself despite all he's done, then dang it, anyone can! War Lilac herself doesn't know any of this yet, though. She thinks that Draig's just an alternate version of her."  
  
"She..." DraigFech spoke, her voice a crumbled whisper and far from the commanding barks it had once been, "She saved me. She took me in. She gave me a home and food and drink and she trained me to be better. To be stronger. To use my powers to save people for the greater good, not kill them to fuel my insanity. And...and she gave me my Milla back..." she arched up too, looking stoic once more, "I owe her my endless loyalty. I just...I lost control sometimes. I let my rage cloud my judgement. I basically become...HER again, and I hate myself for that. I don't call myself Lilac anymore, I don't deserve that title. I...am DraigFech. End of discussion."  
  
Lady Lilac paused for a bit, then scooted forward on her chair and took DraigFech's hand, "You ARE Lilac, DraigFech. Perhaps more than any of us. 'Cause you're still here. You're fighting for what's right, instead of what they want you to do. You didn't let your past and your traumatic experiences drag you down. You embody what a true Lilac is supposed to be - a hero."  
  
"uh, hello?" came a familiar voice, alongside a knocking sound. Both Lady Lilac and Amelia turned to the one-way window, seeing Sans Lilac knocking on it and staring straight at the three.  
  
Amelia looked blank, then spoke up against her better judgement, "...How did you know that wasn't just a mirror?"  
  
"oh please," Sans Lilac almost smirked, "with all the awareness of the fourth wall i've provided, you really thought i wouldn't notice this? i've certainly got more awareness than a certain dragon girl who forgot to close the door..."  
  
Lady Lilac stared at Sans Lilac for a bit, processing what she had said...and then an expression of fear sped across her face. She dashed out of her chair and through the door back into the hallway, just in time to see War Lilac off in the distance, screaming about freedom and punching a few random No-Zone Guards in the process. Lady Lilac let out a sound that could only be described as someone honking a bicycle horn while kicking a goose in the stomach and bolted after her, with DraigFech and Amelia in hot pursuit. Lady Lilac dashed back across the courtyard she had entered the hallway from, trying her best to move around the various people littering the floor before she just gave up and charged her way through them. War Lilac was FAST, however, and she had cleared the courtyard before Lady Lilac could even get halfway across. Various No-Zone guards spilled out of every room, however, and War Lilac had to keep switching corridors to get past them. It wasn't long before she was finally cornered, right in front of a door that creeped even her out; it was huge, grey and circular, almost like the door to a vault, with a million locks and a million screens and panels on either side. The letters above the door were large and white and definitely foreboding; "NO-ZONE ASYLUM".  
  
"War Lilac!" Amelia yelled as she slowly skidded to a stop alongside the two Lilacs by her side, "Stop! What're you doing?"  
  
"What d'ya think I'm doing, I'm getting outta this mess!" War Lilac yelled, furiously tapping at the same wrist device Zonic from only an hour before had, "But I can't get a signal on this freaking thing!"  
  
"...What's she talking about?" Lady Lilac asked.  
  
"Our dimension jumping devices work a bit like a smartphone with wi-fi," DraigFech hastily explained, "It picks up a signal for a universe, connects to it and opens a portal to that universe. For efficiency's sake we've made it so specific universes can only be accessed in certain parts of the No-Zone Prison. And the code for both the original universe, FP-001, and her one, FP-115...well."  
  
War Lilac stopped, her face dropping like a stone as she turned to face the massive door. She turned back to the three with a look of extreme panic on her face, "You did NOT put the signal to my 'verse in THERE, did you?!" Amelia nodded smugly, to which War Lilac had a breakdown, "No. No! No no no no NO NO NO! You can't do that! You KNOW I will NEVER go in there willingly!"  
  
"But why?" Lady Lilac asked, "W-What's in there?"  
  
"Oh you don't wanna know!" War Lilac yelled, her voice wavering, "You'd piss yourself 'til your pants turned yellow if you knew what was in there!" she turned to the device and hammered something into the keypad, "You wanna keep me out of my own 'verse? FINE! I'll just go into another one! FP-626 should do it. Have fun trying to catch me when I'm in the middle of a major event, suckers!"  
  
She cackled as she slammed her hand onto the wrist device. It beeped and projected something out of it, creating a massive purple portal just in front of her. War Lilac turned to the three, flipped the bird and leaped headfirst into the portal, closing it as she went. Amelia rushed forward, babbling, "Nonononononononono!" before the portal closed completely. She growled, hitting the cast-iron door with a loud thud, "DAMN IT!"  
  
"Urgh, we'll have to go get her later," DraigFech sighed, "For now, we'll have to wait 'til those major events she talked about transpire. Sorry 'bout this, other me."  
  
"It's okay," Lady Lilac said, slowly approaching the door, "W-What was she talking about, though? What is this place?"  
  
"...The No-Zone Asylum," Amelia spoke, her voice deep and grave, "Even I dare not go in here. It houses some of the most depraved, most insane, the most unearthly and horrific alternates of anyone and everyone you could possibly see. This place is for those who have gone so far beyond the Moral Event Horizon that rehabilitation is no longer an option. We just lock 'em up in maximum security conditions until the Elder Masters give us the go-ahead to execute them."  
  
"You'll find the scum of the multiverse in there," DraigFech warned, "Cannibals, Serial Killers, Rapists...Paedophiles."  
  
"Oh my..." Lady Lilac looked pale, "Just thinking about that makes me wanna be sick. Again."  
  
Just then, the intercom buried in the bundle of screens and panels sprung to life. It spoke, with a voice that could best be described as if the Gates of Hell themselves had been given a voice, "H̡͏̢o̡̢w̡.͏̶.̢.̛s͞a̢͏d.͟҉ ̸M̶͠y̧͢͏ ҉̵͡m͏a̕͜s̕t̷̴er҉ ͝w̵a̢͜͏s̡͝ ̧̨e̴͠x҉p̕͠ȩ͜c̶ţi̷̛͡n͘g ̴y̛͡o͞ų̷̨ ͢͝t͢o͟ ̧͠be̷ ͝a̧̧ ̸͡͡lo͏̵͞t̢ b̨ra͏v͝e̴r t̷h͝͡a̧̧͞ņ͢ ̶̡t͘h̢͢a̧͡t̨.̶͏̴ ̵̵͢H̛̕e'̧s͠ a͠l҉͠way͢ş ̧ļ͝o͡o͡ki҉̵n͝g ͠f̧͜or͘.̸̧͢.̕͢.͡n̡͜ew t͜a̛̕rge̴t̢͝ş.̵"  
  
Lady Lilac was scared stiff by this voice, whatever it was, which was almost a trillion times more wailing and demonic than whatever came out of Drowned Lilac. She merely spoke up, her voice a timid whisper, "Who...wh-who is this?"  
  
"Lady Lilac, DON'T," Amelia warned.  
  
"O̵͜h͝, ̵̵I̶̶͟ ̶͟a̶̧͢m͜ ̶̢͜n̶͟o̸͞b̡͞o͟d̡y ̡̧i̛m҉̢p̶͘o҉͠rt͘͜a̡͘n̕t.͝.͢.̨͜" the voice wailed again, "I͞͡ ͠a̡͜m̢ ̨me̵r͢e̴͟l͏͏̷y͟͢ ̛͡a͏ s̴͏e̡͡ŗ̧̛v̢̧a̴̢n̴t͡͞ ̧͘t͏ơ͡ ͜tḩ҉e͜͠ ͏m̕o̡̧s̴t ͝p̧͡ǫ͏̶w͡ęr̵f͞҉̕u̴l̴̵͘ g͠o͡d̵͘ ̢͡o͡f̕ ̡t̢͞h͞ȩm̴̢҉ a̡l̸̢͘l.̸ ̷T̴o i̸͞nv͏o҉͡ke̕ ͏͝t͢h҉͠e̵̕ ̷̸hi̷v͟e͜͝-m̢̛i̶͘n͘͟͏d͢͞ ̷͡r̴̛ep̨͡r͟e̷se̡n͜͜t̨in̡̧g̡ ̧͟c̢h̴̨aơ͠s̨̕͜.̧̛ ̸̧͡In̴̢v͡o͏̡k̷i̸n̴͜͟g t̛҉h̷̢e͘ ͏̡f͘e͜e͝l̴̛iņ̵g҉ ҉̶̡o̵͝f c͞͏h̶̛̛a҉̷̢o̷s̷̴. W͟i͟th͢͠o͏͞ư͝t̵ ͏͝o̴̧r͟҉d͜͏e̛r̵. T̴̛͘he͏ ͡Nę͟z̴͟͝p͝e̢r̷͝d̨i͡an̷͞ h̢͡i҉v̕e͡-̶̴m̕͢i̕͞͝n̢d҉ ̶o͠f͞ ̡cha͢o̢s͜.̡̢ ̡͜͜H̨͡e͘ w҉͡h҉o҉̕͜ ͟͞Wait̵͞͏s̢̧̕ ͠B͝e̛hi̛͞n͘d ͞T̶͏h͝͠e̸ ͢W̵a͡l̴̛͝l̛̕!̨"  
  
"Stop it!" Lady Lilac blurted out, "I don't know who you are, but STOP IT! You can't touch me!"  
  
"Ơ̵h̡, ̸͘b̶u̸͜t͏ ͜͢͡Į ͟c̕҉a͏n. ̛̛I̢͏ ͞w̢͜͠i̴̧l҉̶̢l ̴̧g̕e̢t̷͢ ou҉͏t̵͡ ̵o̵f͜ ̷ţ̷h̨͢͟i͏s̶͢҉ ̴v͝a̧̢ul͠t͏ ͜v̴͞ȩr̕͡y̢͜ s̡o̶o̧҉n̡͟͜ ̡͘i̴͘n̢d͘e̛͝ed̸̵.̕ ̷A̵n͞ḑ ̴̷w̢h̢e̶n҉ I d҉̷̡o.̴̷͝ ͞͏I̴'̢͏l͠l̷͝ ̴m͏a̸͞k͞e̵ s͏͟ų̸r͢e̴̢͜ ͠yo̢͘͢ư ̛a͠ļ͝l҉ ̢p̢a͢y̕.̵̸ ̴͝T͜h҉͡͠e̕͢y̶҉ ͏c̨̕all̷ ̕͡͝me͢ ͝t͝h̛e͘ ̢͝m̵̢̧o͜͞s̛t̕ ̵̕d̵an͏͏̧g̶er̷̷o̷u͠͞s̵̢ ҉o̡f̷ ͡͏a͟͡l͠҉l͏͞ ҉th̛e ̴L̛i͢͞l̕a̸c̨͠s҉.͏ ͏T̨͡͏h͠e̡ ̵͠m̛͞o̵s̴̢҉t ͜po͢w̶̵erfu̵͟l̕͏͜.̶̵͝ ͟T͞͡he͘͢ ͡m͡ǫ͡s̸̸͘t̸͟ ͠f̸̧e̶̷a͡͏r͝ed͠͠.̨ I̵̢͘ ͡҉a͡͝m̛͟ ̴͟w̨hy̵ ͜t҉h̢̨e ̵c̸̶͟o͢͡de̵ ҉͝t҉̶̢o͢ ̵y̧͞o҉u̴͟r̨̕̕ W̛͢a̛͘͝r͟ ve̵r̨s͝i҉͠o҉͡n̢'͠҉͡s͏ ̨ų̶nįve̢͢r͘s͏̵e̢̧ ͟i̸͜͝s̴͘ ͢ļ̴͢o͏ç̷͡k͘ȩ̢ḑ u͏p͝ ҉̷w̴̸͝i̶̛th ̴̴m̛͟͝ę.̵ ̨͠I͘͠ ̵̛͠am̵̷͟ ̛t̸h̨͢e͘҉ ̸̵u͢͝lti̡m͢a̶͘͝tę͟͞ ̶ev͘҉i̷̛͘l͟͡҉.̨.̕͘.͠"  
  
"...What's your name?" Lady Lilac asked.  
  
"I̸.͘.̧.̢am҉͜͝ ̵Z̡͘͠a҉lgo̢͜͟ ̛L͘͜il̕a͢c̷͠.͜͟.͟͜.̴"  
  
**The End-ish**


End file.
